My last days on the Star Princess

And finally my 3rd contract and 3rd and 4th ships was down to its last day! My replacement Leandro was one of the original videogs hired at the start of the videographers days in Princess. From Argentina at this point in 2009 I think Leandro had been with the company at least 5 years at this point and he had his pick of assignments. After the Star I think I only ever saw Leandro scheduled on the Ocean & Pacific Princesse’s the companies two smallest ships and therefore most exotic itineraries.

I was so burnt out it wasn’t even funny and it was getting to be a familiar feeling at the end of a contract that you’d just survived it and that all you wanted was a few weeks sleep and then you’d think about if and when you came back for another contract. I’d started this contract in Mexico almost 9 month ago as a junior videog level 2 and ended it as an acting senior videog in Sydney, Australia. This had easily been my best contract so far across both the Sapphire & Star Princess, had great seniors in Rich and Jason on the Sapphire who helped get me promoted to acting senior.

Both photo teams had been full of great people and managers in Laura, Cass & Richard and in fact the only downside was not being able to film in Alaska and having to deal with two useless American videographers. My last manager Rich on the Star had really kicked my arse (rightly so) when he got onboard and I felt myself and Cyrus were producing some of the best work of our careers at that point in my last month onboard, admittedly a 30 day transpacific cruise from Seattle through Tahiti and New Zealand before finishing up in Sydney was a perfect last cruise.

One of the most useful things I learnt that contract was how to deal with head office in the right way because as a senior videographer you had to write an end of cruise report that detailed your sales, review the shoots onboard and ashore and list any issues etc. Well, dealing with Chad & John (names redacted) definitely got me up to speed on dealing with corporate and being a boss onboard. I learned that just because Chad was a racist, homophonic shit stain of a human being I still shouldn’t throw a stack of blank DVD’s at his head, no matter how much he deserved it and I wanted to.

As mentioned in previous diaries I had my contract extended twice and it was this going the extra mile that I’m guessing helped me get in head offices good graces. Firstly as I had already done 2 months on the Sapphire I should have only done 4 months on the Star in Alaska leaving 2 months before the end of the season. However as the company was short of senior videog’s I was asked if I wanted to see out the rest of the Alaska season (another 2 months), now if I had been having a shit contract I would have said no, but the Star was a great ship, with a great team in every department.

When you become a senior videog you get access to fleet email which means you can see where all the ships in the fleet are sailing (the MIM master schedule) and also communicate with the other senior videogs, officially to help each other usually when one of us had an equipment melt down onboard. Unofficially we all contacted each other to shoot the shit and figure out who was on what ship and what ships would be available when you were due to come back.

You could put in a request to head office as a senior asking to be considered for certain ships for your next contract but as my own promotion had shown me there wasn’t really a lot of forward planning at head office. It usually seemed to be ‘shit, Neil is due to leave next week, who do we have to replace him? It was a matter of days and the luck of one phone call between my Sapphire senior Jason and Ben at head office that meant I ended up going as an acting senior to the Star rather than a junior 2 working under another junior 2 who would be my acting senior! It’s no exaggeration that one phone call massively impacted by career for the better be sending me to the Star instead of the Golden.

I forget who I was messaging when I mentioned I’d be leaving in San Francisco in a few weeks and when I told them Leandro was down to replace me, they told me he had only just gone on holiday. So if I demanded to go home they’d have to find someone to fill in for a month and then tranship them, or more than likely they probably would have left Cyrus by himself for a month till Leandro could make it. That said I was happy to extend as it got me that great San Francisco to Sydney month long cruise with a almost new team which meant everyone got on great and the ward room and crew bar were both full every night! The cherry on top on this was that one of the seniors told me you can ask for local leave after 3 contracts but it was only a perk for seniors, now this was the end of my 3rd contract and I was an acting senior videographer so I asked politely with the inference that I would really like a holiday in Sydney after a 9 month contract, extending twice across two different ships!

My local leave was approved which meant that I could stay in Sydney for up to 3 months and as long as the company knew where I was staying they would rearrange my flights till the end of my holiday! 3 months would have been nice but with Sydney hotels I could only afford about 2 weeks!

My mate Nicole who disembarked a month earlier had left a bunch of stuff onboard which she was now thrilled I’d be able to drop off to her when I got to Sydney.

It’s hard to describe the elation you feel on the last day of a contract especially when every other person jokes that you are going to be extended again! You feel like you are walking on air and once you officially sign off at the crew office it’s real! It’s also reassuring that you are going home when you replacement Leandro is already onboard a few days before for a handover, as I was only acting I had no idea what a handover actually entailed by Leandro and Rich walked me through it.

You have to print lists out of all consumables such as labels, blanks DVD’s etc and equipment lists of all the cameras, computers etc and write down every serial number as you are responsible for that equipment until the incoming senior signs over that he is happy with everything. As I’d learn over the years most seniors come in and help out as much as possible and jump straight in meaning you can actually relax a little on your last few days. It helps massively on the last day of the cruise as you usually the incoming senior will take on some of your gallery shifts on the last day as you have to suddenly pack 9 months of your life into 2 suitcases and a rucksack in a few hours!

And then its time for the bar and as your shipboard account is closed and settled on that morning you have to put $20 on a cash card for the bar if no one onboard likes you, or if like me you made some great friends on that contract then you don’t pay for a drink all night. Last nights are sometimes bitter sweet and not the big blow out nights you are expecting because the next day when you step ashore into freedom, everyone else onboard will be back to their usual schedule again.

That said the Star was a party ship and the photo/spa corridor was full of people who liked to drink, once I got to the bar the whole team came out which is always a nice touch and the team had put together a brilliant leaving card for me that resembled a hardback book, one of the best presents you can receive. And of course upon entering the bar its time for the ceremonial handing over of the keys to the edit room and the infernal pager!!!

I believe most of us ended up at a cabin party till around 4a.m till I limped back for a few hours sleep before getting off the ship around 8a.m and jumping in a cab to my hotel in Sydney where I crashed and slept in an actual bed for hours and then the biggest luxury of all… a fucking bath after 9 months!